


Laundry Room Pools

by fromdust_togold



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Phan - Freeform, Swearing, a scary amount of inconsistencies, and i got carried away, honestly like i started writing this and i was gonna stop at 500 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 15:17:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3982927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromdust_togold/pseuds/fromdust_togold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a prompt I saw on tumblr: "I accidentally flooded the laundry room and you really needed to do laundry."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laundry Room Pools

Dan hated Uni. It really wasn't a secret, either, he made sure everyone he came into contact with knew, and after a while, they'd started ignoring him- with good reason, too. After they'd heard his initial, "I hate Uni," speech for the day, they'd carry on, and he'd be left out of the conversation again. And really, what  _wasn't_  there to hate? The professors, contrary to popular belief, weren't as strict as they'd been told they'd be, which meant Dan had slacked off the first 3 months, and without his teachers or his parents yelling at him to get off his ass and  _do_  something, he still hadn't recovered.

 

And, that brought him to his next point. No adults sounded great, up until you realized that no, you didn't actually know how to cook, and yes, you were going go to bed hungry as fuck. For a month, in fact, until your roommate eventually decided to come home before 2 am and spontaneously threw together spaghetti and meatballs, which, where they fuck did that come from, anyway?

 

He was getting off track.

 

Students. God, how he hated the students. And not in the 'you prefer to party, I prefer to read' kind of way, because although Dan was pretentious, he wasn't  _that_ pretentious. It was more of an 'I haven't done laundry in almost a month, and you fucking flooded the laundry room,' kind of hate.

 

Dan fixed his gaze back on the upperclassman- he had dark hair, and blue eyes, and he was trying to apologize for the literal  _foot_  of water they were both standing in.

 

"Hey, listen," he started up again, "it really  _was_  a mistake- how was I supposed to know not to pull the- the- the tube thing! I thought the machine was broken! It seemed logical- you'd have done the same!"

 

Dan adjusted the basket he had balanced on his hip, wondering if he could afford to go another week without doing laundry. Probably not.

 

He sighed and rubbed his forehead with his free hand, "if the machine had already been working for 20 minutes, why would it not be working?"

 

The black haired student's voice went up an octave, "how the hell was I supposed to know?! I’m not a mechanics major- I'm a film major! I don't know laundry machines! This has never happened to me, it's probably- it's probably  _your_  fault! You're bad luck!"

 

Dan sighed again, genuinely considering putting everything off until tomorrow, but the tinge of panic in the boy's voice made him stay. Instead, he walked toward him -what the fuck was his name? - and set down his basket on one of the open counter tops.

 

"Film majors should know how to fix laundry machines,” he half patronized, “everyone should."

 

The dark-haired boy crossed his arms, "oh yeah? Well I'd like to see  _you_  fix it, Mr. I'm-better-than-everyone."

 

Dan rolled his eyes and smiled at him, then rolled his sleeves up, leaning over and behind the malfunctioning machine. He quickly located the broken tubing (not that hard- it was still shooting out water like there was no tomorrow) and plugged it back into the machine. It sputtered, and he gave it a twist. The machine started back up as normal, and he heard the other kid go "huh," behind him.

 

"Well. I guess...that solves that, then. Thanks."

 

Dan pushed himself back up, smiling at him and extending a hand.

 

"Dan."

 

The boy smiled and took his, shaking it firmly, and with a warm smile, said, "Phil."

 

Dan felt himself getting lost in Phil's eyes, their handshake going on longer than socially acceptable. How could they be that blue? Contacts, maybe?

 

Phil cleared his throat and awkwardly removed his hand from Dan's grip, looking at the water that was still everywhere. Dan glanced at his dirty laundry. It  _definitely_  wasn't getting done anytime soon.

 

The two boys looked around awkwardly, until Phil decided to break the silence.

 

"Uh, now what? Does the water just," he waved his arms around, "disappear? How do we get rid of it?"

 

Dan scratched the back of his neck, looking for a drain or something on the ground.

 

"I have no fucking clue. If it was a smaller puddle, then a mop, maybe? But I mean, it's really not a puddle, more of a fucking-"

 

He was cut off by the doors behind him behind opened and water slowly started to trickle out. The girl at the door swore, trying to step out of the way.

 

"What the hell?! What-" she looked at them, eyes wide. "What did you  _do_?"

 

Dan opened his mouth to explain, but before he got a chance, Phil splashed her with water, yelling, "We made a pool, Carrie!"

 

The girl, Carrie, rolled her eyes and smiled.

 

"Headmaster’s gonna give you hell if he finds out what you did, Phil."

 

Phil smiled and flung a now soaking arm around Dan. "Don't worry- Dan's gonna help me clean!"

 

Carrie rolled her eyes again, "alright- give me a ring when you're done, yeah? I haven't done laundry in a  _week_ , can you believe? I'll see you around!" And with one last wave, she was gone.

 

Dan shrugged out of Phil's hold and scoffed, “a pool? Really?"

 

Phil shrugged and Dan reached under the water to take off his shoes and socks, putting them next to his laundry and rolling up his impossible tight skinny jeans. They were gonna be hell to take off later.

 

"I guess we find buckets and try to put this all in the sink?"

 

Phil followed suit, putting his shoes next to Dan's. He gave him a double thumbs up and started waddling toward the sink pulling out two buckets from underneath it. "Sounds like a plan."

 

* * *

 

 

As they hauled water from the floor to the sink, Dan started thinking about how he probably should've gone and done laundry at a more reasonable time during the day, not at 8pm. He could've avoided this entire catastrophe and had his laundry good and done and then been on his merry way. In his defense, though, there was no way he could've foreseen this. And on the upside, he  _did_  get to meet Phil, though he'd sooner drink the water he was currently standing in than admit it to anyone. Dan Howell was the 'resident anti-social', whatever that meant.

 

Phil, evidently, was not, as five minutes into the water haul, he'd started with the small talk.

 

"So what's your major? I haven't seen you around much, are you first-year?"

 

Dan side-eyed him awkwardly, "uh, Law. And yeah, I'm first-year, you?"

 

"Fourth. And you don't really seem like the law type, no offence."

 

Dan shrugged, standing straight to crack his back before continuing- they'd barely made a dent in the tiny laundry room. They were gonna be here for  _hours_. "None taken. I..." he hesitated, but continued anyway, "I was gonna be a theater major. Changed my mind last minute."

 

"What changed it? They're two pretty different things."

 

"I...I had a...crisis, of sorts. Ended up face-down on the carpet for a few days," he chuckled, trying to make light of it.

 

"Oh. Why face-down? Is that a theater kid thing?"

 

Dan laughed, "nah, more of an existential crisis type of thing."

 

"Oh," Phil stayed silent for a bit, but was undeterred by Dan's terrible social skills.

 

"If you could combine two animals together, what would they be, and what nose would they make while mating?"

 

Dan stumbled over the sink, trying to process what Phil had just asked him. "I'm sorry?"

 

"Mine would be a unicorn and a lion, and I'd call it a uni-lion and it's sound like-" Phil made a screeching sound and Dan winced.

 

"W...what?"

 

But Phil didn't have any time for Dan's confusion, and moved on to th next question. And that's how Dan spent the next hours of his Saturday night. Answering questions about animals and weather patterns and different types of music and even socks, surprisingly. When their buckets were more of a nuisance than anything, they shoved them back under the sink.

 

"I'm glad you like Muse," Dan brought up once again, "because if you didn't, I'd genuinely question your sanity."

 

Dan went back over to his laundry and started shoving it all into a single machine, determined to get it all done in one load. Phil pulled a mop out of seemingly nowhere and mopped up what was left of his accident, chuckling at Dan's comment.

 

"I'm surprised you're not questioning my sanity anyway."

 

"Who said I'm not?" he replied, patting himself down, looking for the laundry detergent he  _knew_  he was gonna forget to pack- and lo and behold, he fucking forgotten.

 

"Hey Phil," he started, sheepishly, "do you happen to have one of those little- one of those laundry detergent things? I forgot-" before he could continue, Phil had chucked one at him, hitting him square in the forehead.

 

"Thanks."

 

He put the dissolvable detergent in, and put all his weight into closing the machine door. He set the necessary settings and started it up as Phil walked over and took his own out, shoving it all into one of the dryers.

 

"Consider it a thanks, for helping me clean."

 

Dan scoffed, rolling his pants back down, "I'm gonna need more than that as a thanks, Phil."

 

Phil smiled, rolling his own down as well, "how does coffee sound? Are you free tomorrow?"

 

Dan smiled back at him, "sounds good. Starbucks?"

 

Phil nodded, ruffling his hair up and fixing his fringe. And that's when Dan noticed his toes. Or more specifically, his toenails. They were bright pink.

 

He snorted, pointing at the older boy's toenails, "what's with the nail polish? You lose a bet?"

 

Phil looked down at his feet, then looked back at Dan, smiling and wiggling his toes, "nope! I just think it looks nice!"

 

"But it's- that's for girls."

 

"Boys can wear makeup and nail polish too, if they want to."

 

Dan blinked, suddenly wishing he had the courage to break out of gender stereotypes like Phil did, but not commenting further.

 

* * *

 

 

They sat on the countertop together, waiting for both their loads to be done, and when Phil's was out of the dryer, he opted to wait with Dan instead of leaving.

 

"Hey, if you're a theater major-"

 

"I'm not."

 

"Does that mean you can recite Shakespeare?"

 

Dan looked over at him to see if he was pulling his leg. "'Course I can."

 

"Will you?"

 

"Right now?"

 

Phil shrugged, "now's a good a time as any. Besides, I don't believe that you can."

 

Dan sat up from his slouched over position and cleared his throat, getting into character.

 

"Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,—

Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

With purple fountains issuing from your veins,

On pain of torture, from those bloody hands

Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,

And hear the sentence of your moved prince."

 

He would've-  _could've_ \- gone on longer, but Phil's face was a good enough reason for him to stop there. No need to get over confident.

 

"That was incredible!" He clapped, "I didn't think you could do it! Prince Escalus, from Romeo and Juliet, right?"

 

Dan nodded, feeling himself blush. "Yeah, yeah. Everyone says Romeo and Juliet is overrated, but, I don't know, I find it funny."

 

Phil snorted and opened his mouth to comment, but was cut off by an obnoxious beeping sound. Dan's heart fell when he realized his laundry was done- there'd be no more reason for them to hang out. He piled everything back into his basket as slowly as possible. Phil quietly watched him before speaking up once again.

 

"Are we still on for coffee tomorrow?"

 

Dan slammed the dryer door shut and smiled at Phil, “I’m looking forward to it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This will probably be a stand alone, oneshot, type-thing, unless enough people want me to continue. Regardless, please leave a comment/ kudos! And please feel free to Britpick, or point out any grammar errors! Thanks again!


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